Smell my feet!

Happy Halloween 2012! We had a great night! The rain broke off and gave us a few peaceful (and dry) hours to be out and about! Perfect!

I decided way too late that it would be fun to dress up this year. So, I improvised. I busted out the eye liner and drew a spider web and a spider. Plus, I wore an orange shirt with a spider web on it, and some funky crazy socks to go with. Eye liner + basic art + cheesy shirt + crazy socks = some kind of costume I suppose. Just go with it. Maybe I'll try to plan ahead for next year. (Maybe I should go shopping tomorrow for my 2013 costume... what do you think?)

So yep, that's the extent of my costume... now on to the kids, which is what you really care about anyway, right?

Youngest to oldest?
Meagan talked me into a witch costume. If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago, I would have told you she would not be being a witch. Nope. But here you have it. And it's cute. And I liked it. And she LOVED it. So we're good.

Of course, Indiana trick-or-treating requires layers... She is wearing a pair of pants under her sparkly star witch tights. Layers. It's how we roll.

I guess she liked my spider and spider web because she wanted a spider too. I kept it low-key on her. But still cute. And she thought it was a super huge deal that she got to wear my makeup... eye liner and blush and shadow... all the good stuff.

And when I see this picture, I consider this to be my warning that the day is coming when I will fear for letting her out of the house. I do not look forward to the day that dumb boys start calling and acting like dumb boys to try to get her attention. But I'm gonna guess that day is coming... just look at her. *eeep*

On to child # 2... Less pictures of the boys... because they're boys and they don't want their pictures taken. And plus, they're both ninjas, and you can't see their faces, so what's the point of taking multiple pictures that all look exactly the same? Don't judge. :)

I gotta say, this cracks me up! I'm 100% sure that thing on his face isn't on right. So he sort of looks like a maniacal doctor or something? Do you see it, or is it just me??  I dunno. Funny kid!

And #3... ninja #2. In case you were wondering what Sebastian's eyes look like, here's your reminder. *lol*

 I love these kids! I love that (most of the time) they love to be together and they treat each other like friends. Good stuff.

Friends of ours met up with us and walked the neighborhood with us. Good thing, too, because the dad ended up carrying Meagan on his shoulders for the last 15 minutes or so... that's what happens when you try to trick-or-treat in brand new sparkly dress shoes. I tried to explain that to her, but she's a girl, and she got sucked in by the glitter. Whatever.  Anyway, here's all 6 kids together before we headed out. Look at Miss Meg holding her own in a big pack of wild boys!

We did the entire neighborhood (although Meagan passed on the last 5 houses or so in exchange for the shoulder ride). It was dark by the time we got home - around 7:30 I'd say. So they sat at the table with their candy, trading with each other while they watched The Great Pumpkin. The only bummer was that the Shrek Halloween special wasn't on tv this year. That's been part of our Halloween for the past 2 or 3 years, and the kids were looking forward to it. Oh well.  You can't go wrong with Charlie Brown.

Afterwards, it was hot showers to warm up (and scrub all the makeup and hairspray off). Then off to bed... back to the regular swing of things tomorrow. Hope you had  a happy Halloween!

**********

Fall Break

What a great day it's been! Today was the first day of the kids' 2-day fall break from school. It started off early... Sebastian got up with Dublin at 5:30 this morning, then laid back down with him on the couch for another hour or so. I was up and showered by 7:00. Why? I have no idea. You would think I would sleep in on my sleep-in day. Nope. Up by 7:00. It worked out though, as I got a lot done before 10:00.

Meagan had a friend spend the night last night. She came home with us after gymnastics and stayed. They got up this morning and went outside, where they sat up a tea party, complete with fresh-brewed tea and cinnamon popcorn. Mmmmm. While they were doing that, the boys were chillin', and I had a chance to clean up the kitchen, do a load of laundry, sweep the floors, and start a project.

What project? Remember last October when I started spray painting our dining room chairs? Well, I only got 2 of 6 done last year. So today, I hauled the other 4 out to the garage (which the girls swept out for me...nice to have a few extra pair of helping hands). I got them sprayed pretty well... I still need at least one more coat on them to fill in spots that are thin. Nice to be making progress, though.

At 10:00, our friends' boys came to stay with us for the day. So for about an hour, I had 7 kids at my house. And a dog. Off leash. And a garage full of a spray paint project. Some would question my sanity at this point. But it was all good.

We had a busy afternoon! We went to lunch, then went to the party store to get costumes. The boys both picked out a version of ninja. Again. I think this makes 3 years in a row (??) that Sebastian will be some kind of ninja. I guess he's comfortable with it, so who's arguing? Meagan went in with thoughts of being a cat or a spider. Instead, she absolutely fell in love with this adorable 'cute witch' costume. I'm seriously not a fan of witch costumes, but she had her heart totally set on it. And it IS pretty cute... flowing, and pretty colors, and a cute little cat on the front. So we went with that.

And if keeping in the Halloween mood, we went ahead and decorated outside tonight. There's really  not much to do out there... throw some lights on the mini bushes, plug in the blow up pumpkins, and call it good. Less than an hour and we were done, and Meagan was over-the-moon happy! She LOVES lights and decorations, no matter what holiday it is!

**********

weeks 39 and 40

I'm still hanging in there, trying to pull off some sort of Project Life for 2012. I'm weeks and weeks behind, but I'm not giving up!

I've decided to do the most recent stuff and try to find time to work back to the weeks I've missed. Maybe I'll never get back to them, but hopefully I will. Anyway, I've managed to get something together for weeks 39 and 40. For 39 I barely had enough photos and stories to fill up one 12x12 page, so I deviated from my 2-page-spread format for that week. I have a feeling I'll do that quite a bit as I go back and fill in weeks I've missed... sometimes life gets pretty repetitive, and I forget to take time to photograph or document it. And sometimes I just don't have my camera handy. So it is what it is.

Week 39:

Week 40:

left page close-up:

right side close-up:

**********

catching up on layouts (again)

i have a bunch of layouts i just haven't had the time to post. i'm just trying to get caught up a bit, especially now that puppy-head is becoming less needy in the evenings... MAYBE i might get a wee bit of my free time back? i'm not holding my breath. but here's hoping!

Where the Birds Fly

(click here to view credits)

Silver Orange Boy

(click here to view full credits)

Tackle Football

(click here to view credits)

Creepy Crawly Pumpkins

(click here to view full credits)

check you out

(click here to view credits)

**********

Instinctual

Apparently this is what happens when you get a puppy of a breed that is known for being excellent hunting dogs. Instincts kick in right in the middle of a casual afternoon walk.

Every afternoon after lunch, I've been taking Dublin on walks, and for the past few days we've been walking down the easement behind the houses so he can be off-leash and walk and explore in the grass. Today we did the same. He was going along beside me, wandering every so often to sniff at weeds or try to snack on rocks, but staying with me pretty well. All of a sudden, his nose started sniffing a million miles an hour, he was pointing, and totally keyed in on something that I couldn't see. But he smelled it. And he would NOT let it go. So I stepped back to see what was so exciting to his little puppy sniffer. I figured it couldn't be anything much, since I couldn't see it... maybe a grasshopper or something... he has been known to sniff those out from time to time.

The next thing I know, he comes up with a SNAKE in his mouth, and he was prancing around, proud as could be.

He was none too happy when I made him drop it and walk away. Not happy at all. But I was just not willing to bring the snake home with us as a play toy. Nor was I willing to sit back and watch Animal Planet while my dog tore into a snake for snack. Nope. So he had to drop it and walk away, like it or not.

I knew there was a reason I grabbed my camera before we went on our walk today. You just never know what kind of photo moment will come up. ;)
**********

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted! The biggest thing is that we got our puppy!!! And he is SO cute! We went last Saturday (so over a week ago - September 29th) to pick him up, and since then, we've been adjusting to life with a puppy - working on teaching him lots and lots of new stuff! So far he's doing great, and we all just love him!

He's sleeping in his crate with no issues. He's sleeping through the night. And he (most of the time) comes when we call him, which is nice because he can be off-leash out in the yard... love that! And he's such a lover... LOVES to be with his people... hates NOT being with his people. In fact, he considers himself to be a lap dog. This is fine for now, since he is still small enough to fit on laps. If, however, he still believes he's a lap dog when he weighs 80 pounds, we may have some issues. :)

Check this out... this was how we spent Saturday night watching the Notre Dame vs. Miami game...

And this is Dublin on Isaac's lap while the boys played Play Station.

So, yeah, needless to say, it's pretty hard to resist letting this sweet little guy curl up on your lap... maybe some day we will regret this... or maybe not.

*****
Also last Saturday (same day as puppy day), Meagan hurt her knee pretty badly at Isaac's football game. She was playing on the playground during the game, and flew off of the merry-go-round. When she landed, her leg bent the wrong way...*shiver*  A trip to the ER, X-Rays, and a follow-up with her orthopedic specialist all concluded that nothing was broken or torn. Just really really really sore. She spent the entire week on crutches (Isaac's from a few years ago when he broke his ankle). In fact, Sunday - 2 days ago - was the first time she walked on it at all since the injury happened. She's been off the crutches since then, and every day gets a little stronger on it! Mid-week last week, when she was feeling super discouraged, thinking she would never be done with crutches, I gave her a little incentive... I told her that once she was off the crutches and back to walking on her own, we would all go get custard from Culver's.

And so, today, her 3rd day of no crutches, we followed through on that. And what a great day for it! The flavor of the day was Twix Mix! Mmmmmmm......

**********